


Les Hommes du Petit Papier

by ella_minnow



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-27
Updated: 2012-05-27
Packaged: 2017-11-06 02:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/413731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ella_minnow/pseuds/ella_minnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pages blowing along the water's edge. Tiny origami animals. Lists on scraps of paper, left sitting on tables and counters and chairs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Les Hommes du Petit Papier

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on [ lmno @ livejournal](http://ella-minnow.livejournal.com/1646.html#cutid1) on 14/03/2003. Thank you to mcee and karra for the beta. The title means "men of the little paper," which is two hundred year old french slang for insanity.

When Billy gets to the end of the left hand page, he grasps it by its edge and, with a sharp pull, rips it from the paperback novel. He sets it aside without looking, eyes already gone on, placing it on the pile of similarly detached papers half buried in the sand next to him.

He doesn't notice when the breeze coming in from the ocean steals the top three sheets from his pile, sending them tumbling and flying along the beach behind him.

Finishing the last line on the left hand page, he takes a firmer hold on the page's edge.

*

The little twist of waxed paper is slippery between Dom's fingers. With a focused frown, he makes a delicate fold, then another. He licks the tip of one finger to wet it and tastes a hint of the powdered sugar that rubbed off of the gum wrapper onto his hands. He pinches the last fold between his dampened fingertip and the nail of his thumb, turning the crease sharp and crisp.

Another twist and a tuck and he smiles at the tiny origami swan sitting in the palm of his hand.

Hearing someone call his name from across the canteen, Dom sets the swan down on the table and walks away, careful not to jam his foam hobbit feet into any table legs as he goes.

*

Elijah likes lists. They make him feel organised, in control, on top of things.

_To do_. _Groceries_. _To pack_. _Important phone numbers_. _Schedule_.

He makes his lists on whatever scraps of paper come first to hand, on the backs of envelopes and napkins and paper shopping bags and the back pages of books. He writes them out in his sloppy, sloping writing with nubs of dull pencils and precise ink pens.

Half the time, he loses his lists before even one of the items is checked off. He puts them down and puts them into pockets and can't remember, after, where they are.

 

*

Pages blowing along the water's edge. Tiny origami animals. Lists on scraps of paper, left sitting on tables and counters and chairs.

Andy loves these things, these little paper pieces. He always stops to pick them up, scooping the dripping pages of Billy's novel out of the surf, delicately pinching the heads of Dom's gum-wrapper swans to lift them without bending their fragile wings, tucking Elijah's scrawled lists into his pocket. He keeps the lists and pages in a drawer in his kitchen and lines the origami figures along his window sill, a miniature paper zoo he can look at as he pleases.

He wants to ask Billy what he's reading now. He wants to ask Dom how to make origami beetles. He wants to remind Elijah to pack his glasses from the top of the fridge.

Instead, he wishes the hobbits a good morning on his way past their make-up trailer.

 

End.


End file.
